Case Study 1

Case study 1 Save the Vulcan – how to save pubs and influence people The first group to be case studied in this book is the ‘Save the Vulcan’ campaign. The Vulcan Hotel was built in 1853 and was located in the centre of Cardiff, United Kingdom, but was under threat from demolition. This chapter will address the Save the Vulcan campaign to illustrate that substantial mediain the first and political opportunities were open for the group, and how they managed to exploit these opportunities. However, the media and protest tactics of the group were non-confrontational, and the decisions behind the tactics were influenced by the group’s political insider status and the demographics of their supporters. The non- confrontational tactics and political opportunities led to a very sympathetic local newspaper, and this fed back into the media and protest tactics and kept them relatively non-confrontational. The Save the Vulcan campaign 1 was created following an interview on BBC Radio Wales with the future chairperson, and the subsequent involvement of another activist who joined the group upon hearing this interview. The committee that formed had a consistent core of five members. It was a Cardiff-based campaign that centred its political pressure on local politicians and publicising the campaign in the South Wales regional press, the South Wales Echo in particular. The political and media backdrop This section will detail the protest targets of the group, and the media and political backdrop to the Vulcan campaign before it began. First, the nature of the external threat to the Vulcan pub meant that the protest targets for the campaign were clear. The developer who owned the land the Vulcan resides on is described by Vulcan Activist 2 as “clearly the big bad guy” (2010). But the campaign found that the developer was immune to negative publicity and was difficult to contact directly. This meant that the campaign needed to develop a strategy that would influence the other stakeholders around the Vulcan issue who could not be ignored by the developer. This included political representatives and the brewer SA Brains who leased the pub from the developer. The political backdrop to the campaign centres on the makeup of the parliamentary and Welsh Assembly constituency of Cardiff Central, and the council ward of Adamsdown. At the time of the campaign, the Liberal Democrats held a monopoly over centre of Cardiff where the Vulcan building sat, and they controlled Cardiff Council in coalition with Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales) (Cardiff Council 2011a, b). It should be noted that before the Save the Vulcan campaign was established, there was already a political awareness of the issue. This can be seen in transcripts from Cardiff Council debates that demonstrate a certain amount of cross party consensus on the issue. In the debate, Labour Councillor Richard Cook asks the Liberal Democrat councillor for the Vulcan’s ward at the time Nigel Howells why under his party’s administration the pub was put under threat. To which Councillor Howells answers: I’m against the sale of the Vulcan as much as anyone. In fact, we have been running a campaign […] to save the Vulcan (Quoted in Cardiff Council 2008a, 23–24) A similar exchange occurred in the following month where the deputy leader of the council and Plaid Cymru councillor during this period Neil McEvoy was asked if he supported the campaign; he responds, “My personal opinion then definitely I am 100% in favour of saving the Vulcan” (Quoted in Cardiff Council 2008b, 35). This illustrates the pre-existing political opportunity to be potentially exploited by the group to gain political support for the issue. To exemplify this further, at the time of the council debates, Jenny Randerson, the then-assembly member (AM) for Cardiff Central, tabled a statement of opinion in the Welsh Assembly (National Assembly for Wales 2008). This Welsh Assembly version of a House of Commons Early Day Motion was signed by 21 of a total of 61 AMs, and covered all of the political parties. The motion clearly states that the Assembly “opposes the proposed demolition of The Vulcan Hotel in Adamsdown, Cardiff and calls on the developers to re-consider their proposals with a view to saving this historic pub” (ibid). The political insider element of the Save the Vulcan members came from their party political affiliations. This however was not part of the publicity but was used as a tool to gain access to politicians and apply political pressure, and it contributed greatly to the group’s political opportunities. One member was a political activist for Plaid Cymru who had a personal relationship with some Plaid Cymru AMs. The other had a more influential role within the Liberal Democrats working for Jenny Willott MP and performing extensive campaign work for the MP and local party. In practice, this meant that they had an influence over the MP’s photo opportunities, and what issues the local party should focus on. They exploited this political influence as an insider to its fullest, and this access certainly did not hinder the group’s progress in reaching its goals. A second example of this insider influence is exemplified by presence of the AM, MP, and councillors at a public meeting set up by the Save the Vulcan campaign to gauge the level of support in the local community and the wider city (Miloudi 2009a, 10; Anon 2009c, 6). This first action helped open political opportunities and signalled to the group how much potential support they would receive from the public and politicians. These relationships had a very influential bearing on the media strategies and protest tactics of the group, as Vulcan Activist 3 states these connections “guided the way we campaigned” (2010). The interest in the future of the Vulcan pub was also present in press coverage before the campaign began. These reports occurred outside of the sample timeframe, but it does demonstrate the importance the Vulcan story had to the local newspaper, and the potential media opportunity available to the group. The Vulcan is mentioned in a report from December 2005 about the businesses in danger of demolition because of a retail development in Cardiff city centre (Nifield 2005, 4). The Vulcan’s plight is also included in an editorial from July 2007 lamenting the loss of old fashion pubs (O’Connor 2007, 20), and again in January 2008 in a story about the development of Cardiff entitled “Changing face of your city” (Nifield 2008, 16). Even though there were only 5 articles between 2005 and the end of August 2008, this shows that the issue was present, however small, in the consciousness of the local newspaper. Further to this, the first month of newspaper articles from the sample illustrates the media platform from which the Vulcan campaign could exploit and build upon. In September 2008, there were 8 (6% of total) articles, including 5 letters to the editor (5% of total). These stories concerned issues around Cardiff’s heritage and Welsh pub closures, which were mentioned in 4 and 7 (3 and 6%) articles, respectively. Also, 5 out of the 8 articles recognised Vulcan’s situation as a serious issue. The prevailing media and political context around the Vulcan presented the campaign with a positive opportunity to capitalise on and exploit while attempting to save the pub from demolition. The group’s relationship with the local newspaper was a positive and a productive one. The chair of the Vulcan group was an experienced campaigner and had previously run a successful campaign to save a different Cardiff pub (Anon 2008a, 21). This meant that they had pre-existing contacts with the newspaper. The close relationship built between the group and the local press meant that there was regular contact with each other. This helped in getting stories about the Vulcan published, and the local media’s proximity to the issue meant there was a natural affinity to the story, as Vulcan Activist 3 observed that the “Echo ran pretty much every press release” (2010). The media strategy placed an emphasis on a professionalised approach which meant creating press releases that were written concisely and succinctly as to be easily replicated by the press, thereby making a journalist’s job as simple as possible. The relative lack of resources behind the Vulcan meant that tactics such as media training were not a consideration, and the group was reliant on the talents and enthusiasm of the activists involved. To keep the press interested, the group held a variety of events and created media opportunities. These events had two objectives: (1) to raise the profile of the campaign and (2) to increase the attraction of the Vulcan to visitors. This relationship is framed by Vulcan Activist 2 as “they needed us and we needed them”, but stresses the importance of the press as “an important vehicle for influence” (2010). This sentiment is echoed by Vulcan Activist 3 who refers to the press as a ‘mouthpiece’ that is used to influence protest targets (2010). Subsequently, the Save the Vulcan group were able to raise the profile of the pub to a point where the media came to the campaign; for example, BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine visited the Vulcan twice and featured the issue in radio shows (BBC 2009a, b). No media requests were refused; in fact, they were actively exploited to keep the focus on the Vulcan and the issues in the mainstream media. The Vulcan campaign knew that there was a considerable media opportunity which was used to help open political opportunities. Shaping the message The media and political opportunities presented to the group would influence their choice of media and protest tactics.

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